“Constance, there’s no easy or graceful way for me to put into words what I have to say. So I’ll phrase it as simply as I can. You must come back with me.”
This announcement was even more of a surprise than his arrival. Constance remained silent.
“You have to come home.”
“But my son—”
“His place is here, with the monks, as the rinpoche. You’ve just said he’s filling that role admirably. But you’re not a monk. Your place is in the world — in New York. You have to come home.”
She took a deep breath. “It’s not quite so simple.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“There’s another matter to consider…” She faltered, at a loss for words. “What exactly will be — what does this mean for us?”
Quite suddenly, he took her hands in his. “I don’t know.”
“But why this decision of yours? What happened?”
“I’ll spare you the details,” he said. “But there was a night, not so long ago, when I knew, with utter certainty, that I was about to die. I knew, Constance. And in that moment — that last extremity — it was you who suddenly came into my mind. Later, when the crisis had passed and I realized I would live after all, I had time to reflect on that moment. It was then I realized that, quite simply, life without you is not worth living. I need you to be with me. In what way or relationship, precisely, as ward, friend, or…I don’t know…remains to be worked out. I…I ask for your patience in that. But regardless, one fact remains. I cannot live without you.”
As he’d spoken, Constance had stared closely at his face. There was an intensity in his expression, a look in the glittering ice-silver eyes, that she had not seen before.
He grasped her hands more firmly. “Please come home.”
For a long moment Constance remained silent, holding his eyes with her own. And then — almost imperceptibly — she nodded.
About Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
DOUGLAS PRESTON AND LINCOLN CHILD are the number one bestselling co-authors of the celebrated Pendergast novels, as well as the Gideon Crew books. Relic and The Cabinet of Curiosities were chosen by readers in a National Public Radio poll as being among the one hundred greatest thrillers ever written, and Relic was made into a number one box office hit movie. Douglas lives in New Mexico, Lincoln in New Jersey. Readers can sign up for their monthly newsletter, The Pendergast File, at www.PrestonChild.com and follow them on Facebook.
About the Agent Pendergast Series
Aloysius Xingu L Pendergast was born circa 1960 and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is a special agent with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, based in the New Orleans, Louisiana branch. However he frequently travels out of state to investigate cases that interest him, namely the handiwork of serial killers.
Pendergast is polyglot, demonstrating mastery of French, Italian, Latin, Greek, Portuguese and Cantonese, and is semi-fluent in Mandarin. He also has some knowledge of Japanese. Before joining the FBI, he studied Anthropology at Harvard University and received a dual Doctor of Philosophy degree in Classics and Philosophy from Oxford University. He also spent a year in Tibet studying the deep meditative art of Chongg Ran, taught to him by the monks of the Gsalrig Chongg monastery. He then served with the U.S. Special Forces. His military records are classified and unknown. Some years before the events of Relic, his wife, Helen Esterhazy Pendergast, disappeared. She was presumed killed in a hunting accident while in Africa.
Agent Pendergast Cast of Characters
Lt. Vincent D’Agosta — NYPD (formerly Southampton PD). Possibly Pendergast’s most trusted friend and associate.
Constance Greene — Pendergast’s ward, who also has feelings for him.
Proctor — Pendergast’s butler and chauffeur with abilities far beyond both roles.
Wren — a book restorer at the New York Public Library.
Mime — an invalid of unknown affiliation. Skilled in obtaining obscure information via the computer and Internet.
Dr. Nora Kelly — New York Museum of Natural History curator.
William “Bill” Smithback, Jr. — New York Times (formerly New York Post) journalist.
Captain Laura Hayward — New York City Police Department, helps in many cases.
Dr. Margo Green — New York Museum of Natural History curator.
Dr. Viola Maskelene — an Egyptologist.
Eli Glinn — president of Effective Engineering Solutions, Inc. Expert profiler and the only person to whom Pendergast will talk about his childhood and his brother.
Corrie Swanson — from Medicine Creek, Kansas, assists Pendergast on a case in Still Life with Crows.
Maurice — Caretaker of the Pendergast family mansion, Penumbra, in Louisiana.
Kyoko Ishimura — Pendergast’s maid in the Dakota.
Officially, the Pendergast’s family wealth came from pharmaceuticals, and the family became sufficiently old and established in New Orleans to conduct themselves as aristocracy. However, there are hints that the fortune actually came from patent medicine, and that some of the family’s customers suffered permanent injury or even death from its effects. To Pendergast’s shame, a streak of insanity has afflicted his family for generations; many of the family have been convicted of horrible crimes, and ended their lives in asylums.
Diogenes Dagrepont Bernoulli Pendergast — Pendergast’s younger brother (born circa 1962). As intelligent as Aloysius, if not more so, but criminally insane. Although he was always a unique child, Diogenes was pushed over the edge during a traumatic event during their childhoods. Sherlock Holmes fans will undoubtedly recognize the homage to Conan Doyle’s ‘Diogenes Club’.
Cornelia Delamere Pendergast — Pendergast’s great aunt, who poisoned her husband, brother and children. Cornelia held residence at the Mount Mercy Hospital for the Criminally Insane until her death.
Antoine Leng Pendergast (a.k.a. Enoch Leng) — Pendergast’s great-grand uncle. Antoine travelled north to New York after being expelled from the Pendergast family. Taxonomist and chemist as well as a member of the New York Lyceum in the late 19th century. Pendergast now lives in Leng’s old mansion on Riverside Drive, with Proctor as butler/chauffeur.
Hezekiah Pendergast — (Pendergast’s great-great grandfather) Antoine’s father. Was a traveling salesman who contributed greatly to the family fortune by selling a quack medicine known as Hezekiah’s Compound Elixir and Glandular Restorative. The tonic was eventually exposed as a lethal blend of cocaine, acetanilid and alkaloid botanicals. It was the cause of uncounted addictions and deaths, including that of Hezekiah’s wife and Antoine’s mother, Constance Leng Pendergast.
Henri Pendregast de Mousqueton — a seventeenth-century mountebank who pulled teeth, performed magic and comedy, and practiced quack medicine.
Eduard Pendregast — a well-known Harley Street doctor in eighteenth-century London.
Comstock Pendergast — Pendergast’s great-grand uncle. Famed mesmerist, magician, and mentor to Harry Houdini. Eventually murdered his business partner and his family. He then committed suicide by cutting his throat twice.